


Something To Talk About

by Angie13



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 08:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8883508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angie13/pseuds/Angie13
Summary: Judy is not used to Nick being quiet.  Not at all.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [audrey1nd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/audrey1nd/gifts).



Rain drummed a steady tattoo on the roof of the cruiser but Judy only barely registered the sound. Not only had it become a constant source of white noise in her mind but she found her attention wavering unevenly between the reason she was sitting in her police cruiser, staring at a dimly lit door, and the uncanny silence of her partner sitting in the passenger seat. They were on a stake-out. There should have been no distractions, no uncertainty. There never had been before and they had been on at least a half dozen of these missions since his graduation from academy and assignment to Central. Usually they settled into a smooth routine to stave off boredom, a less-raucous and physical version of their usual banter. In the confines of the car, Nick would run through trivia and gossip before moving onto whatever pop song annoyed her the most that week until she threw a crumpled wad of paper at his head. Then, the script went, they would settle down into a few serious minutes of discussing the case before one of them needed a breather. Step outside, stretch, take care of the call of nature, etc. When the one who left returned, the cycle would start again but it would be her turn to ramble. Often the stake-outs turned into impromptu quiz runs on each other. Judy remained shocked by how well Nick retained information. She barely remembered how she was related to Cousin Leo; how Nick, who had never met ninety-five percent of her family, could remember left her gobsmacked.

So his silence on this stake-out rang in stark contrast to every other one. Actually, if she were honest, it loomed large and out of the normal run of their entire relationship. Nick was never quiet. Nick never left her feeling she had done something horribly out-of-place. 

She was overthinking things. She had to be. She hated thinking sometimes; she would much rather run into things headlong. Judy grimaced and twisted in her own seat. Discomfort and tension turned her back into a mess of knots and, as always, it translated into an urge to let her foot tap out a fast tattoo. Unfortunately, strapped into the driver’s seat, she had nowhere to go and, if she allowed her foot freedom, she feared it would hit the gas pedal.

As uncomfortable as the silent tension was, though, Judy figured it would be twenty times worse if she plowed them into a brick wall because she could not control her body. It was just a hunch.

Twitching her nose as a replacement outlet for her jitters, she attempted to redirect her focus on the door she and Nick had been observing for the past three hours. She leaned forward until she felt the solid press of the steering wheel against her chest. Then she remembered the horn and drew back with a start. The last thing they needed would be a blaring alert like that. The subjects were not believed to be dangerous but what mammal would feel peachy about police sitting outside their door? She would rather not find out if the alleged bank robbers had any hidden violent streaks.

The thought brought to mind the manila envelope sitting on the console between her and Nick. Of course! She could review the case file again. What better use of her time could exist? 

Judy reached out but her paw collided with another and she froze. Her violet eyes shot up to meet the new-leaf green ones of her partner. “Nick?”

“Carrots.” 

There was no upswing in the word so it wasn’t a question but she answered nonetheless. She had to; the silence was driving her up the wall. “So Mom sent me a care package and I got it before I left my apartment tonight. You’ll have to come by after this shift because she sent something for you and you’ll never guess what it is. It’s ridiculous. You have to be nice about it, though, because I think she put a lot of thought into it. I hope it fits. It looks like it should. It creeps me out just a little bit, though, when I think about how she figured out your size. I mean, really, did she stare at picture of you or something? Even doing that wouldn’t really tell her…”

“She was probably looking at pictures of me standing next to you. Size comparison.” Nick settled back in his seat and gave her a faint smirk. “In case you haven’t noticed, there are an awful lot of pictures of the two of us floating around. Personally, I’m waiting for the call from Steven Beagleberg. We’re a buddy cop movie waiting to happen.”

Judy cocked her head. This sounded more like the old Nick. She smiled and played into the storyline he spun. “So who is the good one and who is the bad one?”

“Neither or both.” Nick shrugged with one shoulder but his mouth remained twisted in that teasing smirk. “You’re an overdramatic little bunny so you go off the deep end all of the time. Leaping without looking. Almost getting written up. Nearly suspended.”

“I would never!”

Nick gave her a very significant look and she quelled, ears drooping with guilt. The look was very familiar and only her mother ever did it better. It said, “Judith Hopps, you are pushing the line of sense and honesty there and you know darn well you would do what you’re denying.” She wrinkled her nose and deliberately turned to look out the windshield.

When his paw touched hers and then she felt the soft pads brush against her cheek, she looked at him sideways. That was new. “Yeah, you would. You nearly managed that your first forty-eight hours of work,” he pointed out. Then he grinned broadly. “Lucky for you, you met me, your handsome, witty, and endlessly charming co-star.”

“Who I had to blackmail into helping me with the investigation.”

“Blackmail is such an ugly word.” Nick’s grin remained as he drew his paw back. He shifted until he could prop his elbow on the center console. “You know, I’ve been thinking…”

“Have you now?” Judy twisted to face him directly. Nick thinking could easily explain his earlier silence. Maybe she hadn’t done anything wrong, after all. “That’s dangerous.” 

“I know.” Suddenly, Nick’s expression sobered. “Sorry about that.”

She reached for him and winced when he drew back. Not to be denied, she grabbed his paw and held tight despite his grimace. “Carrots,” he whined. “If you’re going to punish me with a kumbaya for thinking, I promise I won’t do it again.”

“No. You’re going to tell me what you were thinking about.” She searched his face, came up against the all-too-familiar mask of blank emotion, and huffed with her usual annoyance. “You are,” she insisted.

He shook his head slowly. “Hopps, you don’t wanna know. Really.” He glanced down at her paw on his and then back up at her, one eyebrow lifting. She shook her head, mulish. She would not budge on this. The equation was really simple and she found herself baffled that he did not seem to realize it. Nick was her best friend. She loved him. Something was upsetting him. She needed to know. Then she could fix it. 

Finally, Nick broke eye contact and indicated the world outside their cruiser with a quick, little lift of his chin. “We’re still on that stake-out, you know,” he pointed out, mild and drawling. “We should be looking for perps.”

Her ears twitched and her eyes reflexively darted to look out the windshield. Still nothing. The rain continued to pour down, pattering on their roof, keeping the bad guys indoors. Judy turned her gaze right back to her partner. “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to have to start talking and talking until you do.” It was a hollow threat and heaven only knew what she would talk about but determination and concern tangled in her head and gave her the willpower. She hoped it would also give her the way.

 

He considered her and her threat for so long she feared he would call her bluff. Then, abruptly, he shook his head and slouched in his seat. His own ears dropped back and down a bit in a mixture of resignation and discomfort. “It’s talking that gets us into problems,” he announced. “Have you ever noticed that?”

“... Huh?”

“Talking. Always all the talking.” A dry laugh slipped from him and then, suddenly, his head turned to her again and Judy’s world became a pair of green eyes and a too-white grin. “Okay, Carrots, how’s about this? You’re my best friend and I’m yours. Right?” She nodded. “Setting aside the fact that you are my only friend and I might be your only friend…”

“But Finnick! And Clawhauser…”

“Alright. Point taken and made. That still leaves you and I best friends and we are partners.” He waited for her to nod her understanding. “And we pretty much spend all of our time together.” She nodded again. “And you fail spectacularly at dating. No offense but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone turn off a potential cuddle buddy as fast as you manage it. How many bucks has your mom sent your way?”

Judy blinked. She felt that was a very rhetorical question that still needed an answer. Before she could do more than part her lips in an attempt at refutation, though, Nick reached out and laid the soft pad of one finger against her nose. She shut her mouth with a nearly audible snap. He grinned with a sort of strange triumph. “And, well, charming and dashing as I am, I’m not exactly flush with vixens,” he continued.

The very thought of Nick dating made her stomach clench uncomfortably. She wrinkled her nose beneath his touch and he drew his hand away. “The bullpen is worse than a high school girls’ locker room.”

“Okay, now I think your so-called thinking is more like your brain overheating. Has your insomnia been acting up again? You know you can always call me if you can’t sleep.”

“Judy.” His use of her name stopped her cold and she watched him warily. His grin softened into something wry. “They’re talking about us.”

“Us?” She felt stupid repeating him but she had no idea what exactly he meant by his revelation. All she knew was that some aspect of it bothered him. When something bothered her Nick, she wanted to make it stop. Right away, preferably.

“Yeah, us. As in ‘Nick and Judy are awfully close’ us.” He watched her expression while she watched his. He sighed and squirmed until he sat properly again. Then he turned, leaned over the console between them, and held her eyes unwaveringly. “Judy, they’re talking about us like we’re a couple. A romantic, dating, holding-hands-at-the-movies kind of couple.” He let that sink in for a moment. Then he reached for her paw. “Like this.”

She felt heat race up to her face as his words hit and registered. Knowing that any flush would be hidden by her thick fur did not help her relax any. Nonetheless, she turned her paw in his. Just as he held her, she held him back. Did she mind? Did it bother her that their co-workers had nothing better to do than gossip about her and Nick? Did the idea of what they were talking about throw her off-stride?

No. No, it did not. None of it did. On the other hand… It seemed to bother Nick to some degree and that was not acceptable. Yet he had not tried to distance himself and there was no change in how he treated her. All that had changed was the earlier quiet, the thinking, the near sulk...

Judy smiled as she experienced one of those moments that could only be described as illuminating. The metaphorical light bulb shone bright in the inky darkness of their cruiser and the rain and the night. She leaned closer to him. Nick’s smile gentled and he regarded her from beneath lowered lids. The light bulb flickered more brightly. “So they’re talking,” she said, slowly and carefully. She could not risk saying the wrong thing here and she was no Slick Nick. Not even after months of his coaching and examples.

“Yep. Talking. Lots of talking. Maybe a bit of judging.”

“That’s interesting. In a ‘I don’t actually care what they think’ kind of way.” She inched closer. “Because… You know you love me.”

“Do I?”

“Uh huh. Just like I know I love you… And now you know it, too.” Judy watched his green eyes flicker at her admission. She bit back a huge grin, pleased at her detective skills and honesty. Then she squirmed the final distance to kiss his nose. “So let’s go to a movie some time and hold hands and let them judge.”

“And let them talk?”

“Let them be jealous.” Judy drew back. She let the grin go and it blossomed enormous and warm. His answering laugh created happy butterflies in her stomach. 

“Come here, you.” Reaching out, Nick managed to get his arm around her shoulders and bring her close. The console still presented a significant barrier but the comfort in his touch more than made up for it. Especially when he started an idle rubbing motion on her shoulder. “Dumb bunny,” he murmured. 

“Sly fox.”

Nick tilted his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Sly bunny, dumb fox,” he chuckled. “Yep, okay, then. I hope they turn green with envy. Better yet… I’m just picturing Chief Buffalo Butt’s face now. Oooohhh, it is gonna be priceless. I might have to get a camera ready.”

Laughing, Judy poked a finger into his side. “Oh, shut up, Nick.” She looked up at him, eyes bright. “He’s more likely to bust us down to meter maids if he finds out we weren’t paying attention during the stakeout.”

“Right, right. Good point. Because Zootopia isn’t paying us for relationship counseling.” He squeezed her against him one more time but, even after relaxing, his arm stayed around her shoulders. “So start paying attention to that riveting building up ahead, Carrots. Crime never sleeps, yadda yadda. Let’s watch paint dry next.”

“Niiiick.” 

And there was the banter and the cycle once more. This time, though, it was different and Judy relaxed into the happy knowledge that the term “partners” had a brand new meaning after one boring detail on a rainy night. It felt good and right. Let the others talk. 

In Zootopia, you could be anyone or anything. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde? Well, they were going to be happy or she would know the reason why not.


End file.
